Islamabad
The German Bank KfW has backtracked from its earlier report on power sector that had questioned the claims of the government for improvement in the performance of public sector power generation companies (Gencos) declaring them as incorrect and politically influenced.
Now under latest scenario, the same bank has also tendered an apology for the misuse of their internal report to fabricate a very negative story. Signed on March 17, 2017 by Wolfgang Mollers, Director KfW in Pakistan, the letter written to Secretary Water and Power Younas Dagha, of which he copy is available with The News, says: “The internal report was taken out of context and blown out of proportion in a way to fabricate negative story, giving the impression of a verdict against the excellent work done by the Ministry of Water & Power.”
The KfW took the U-turn after an official meeting held on March 13 between the officials of Ministry of Water and Power, EAD and KfW.
“There is a turnaround in all spheres of power sector and we hope to sustain these achievements in future as well,” says the letter.
In the correspondence to the ministry, KfW has acknowledged the fact of improvement in the power sector, as claimed by the Ministry, in these words: “In fact and for record: Being a long term supporter of Pakistan’s power sector development, we admire the fastest ever pace of progress achieved in recent years by your ministry in power generation as well as in transmission and distribution system.”
As regards the “fabricated negative story”, the letter said: “It is highly regrettable, and KfW apologise for that!”
This letter the Bank wrote to secretary Dagha was with reference to a news story published in a newspaper on 6th of March 2017, wherein the claims of the ministry for improvement in the performance of government-owned Gencos was criticised as being incorrect and politically influenced. The news story claimed to authenticate its charge against the ministry on the basis of an internal report of KfW, which was neither officially released nor shared with the ministry. The news story gave the impression of continuation of the past history of misgovernance and losses.
The ministry in its rebuttal the next day had stated: “The ministry rejects the report as being done without due research and lacking in professional competence. We reiterate the claims in the advertisement and invite any analyst or reporter to interact with the ministry and verify the claims in the advertisement of having achieved better fuel efficiency and of turning losses into profits.”
The history of the power sector is changing as Gencos are coming out of losses. Distribution companies (Discos) have successfully reduced their AT&C losses by 5.2 percent again for the first time in the history of power sector. The transmission system, constrained to only 15,600MW, transmitted a record 17,540MW in 2016, when 85 percent of the total available capacity was dispatched.
